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Monday, September 15, 2014

Back Where They Belong! Nick Cuti and Joe Staton Bring E-Man Home to Charlton

By Dan Johnson

When E-Man made his debut back in 1973, he was a huge hit
with fans. Very quickly, readers of Charlton Comics took to him and the
character became a cult favorite. Indeed, E-Man was so popular, he survived the
decline and eventual death of the original Charlton line and went on to star in
adventures published by First Comics, Comico, Alpha Productions, and Digital
Webbing Press.

Now,
Charlton Neo is proud to annoucne
that E-Man is coming home, back in a brand-new adventure that will be appearing
in Charlton Action by the men who
first brought him to life, Nick Cuti and Joe Staton. Recently I was able to
catch up with Nick and Joe and got the skinny on their new E-Man story. Here is
what they had to say:

Dan Johnson: You gents created E-Man over forty years ago
for the original Charlton Comics. How does it feel to be bringing him back for
the new Charlton Neo line?

Joe Staton: I have friends that sometimes I don't see for ten
or even twenty years, but then I'll spend some time with them again, and we
have things to catch up with, but it's comfortable like we've been hanging out
all this time.E-Man is like that.He never gets old, being an energy
creature and all, but when I get back to spending time with him it's still
comfortable.

Nicola Cuti

Nick Cuti: Most fans have heard that
I’ve never been a big fan of superheroes. That’s not entirely true. I used to
read Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel, Spider-Man, and Plastic Man when I was a
kid. What I have against them is that they have almost completely taken over
the comics. Where there used to be westerns, space opera, police drama, jungle
adventures, animal antics, romance and war there is now superheroes. However, I
think superheroes are great. And when it came my turn, thanks to George
Wildman, to write a superhero, I was thrilled. I wanted to write something
different, to break away from the glut of superheroes which filled the comic
pages of the seventies. So, I turned to Plastic Man as my guide. He was the
most unusual superhero of his time and I used to love reading about his
escapades. I modeled E-Man after him, adding my own unique touches to the
character, but he was cancelled after only ten issues, so I figured I was
wrong. Still he survives. I am delighted beyond words that he has followed in
the footsteps of many unusual concepts, and become a cult favorite. It
validates my original feelings for the character and I cannot express how happy
I am to be still writing E-Man scripts forty years after his cancelation.

Johnson: Tell us how this
new E-Man story came about. What started the ball rolling?

Cuti: It was Mort Todd and Fester
Faceplant who suggested Joe and I do another E-Man story. I called Joe because
I knew he was so busy with the Dick Tracy comic strip, and a syndicated strip
takes a huge toll on one’s time. Joe and I spoke over the phone and we decided
it should be a three-part story, but I was not to send Joe the script until
July when Joe had some time to work on it. So, I began working on the concept,
based on an idea I had years ago, but the comic company where it was supposed
to be printed, Digital Webbing, stopped publishing.

Staton: Nick and I had
done three E-Man issues for Ed Dukeshire's small publishing company, Digital
Webbing, seven or eight years ago and we never got to finish up the run as Ed
shut down printing. I knew Nick still had a storyline in his head involving
Nova Kane's little sister, so this seemed like the time to attend to that.

Johnson: That sounds exciting! What else can you tell us
about this new E-Man adventure? What can fans of the character expect to see?

Cuti:
Basically, I wanted to explore Nova Kane’s past. Everyone knew E-Man’s story,
but not many people knew about Nova’s history, mostly because I never wrote
much about it.

Staton: Nick
gets to tell the tale of the Colchnzski family. It's Nova's birth name. I guess
she's Polish, like Blackhawk. We did a bit long ago with Comico about E-Man's
family, when he returned back home to find the super-nova where he was born,
and we got into Michael Mauser's earlier years at First, but it's time to see
where Nova came from.

Cuti: Nova was
born in Pennsylvania; I had spent a few years as a camp counselor in the
mountains of that state so I set the story there. It mostly involves Nova, her
family and her younger sister, Anya, who both admires and resents her famous
big sister. She is given super powers and becomes Ms. Fortune, a sort of
reverse Lady Luck. This causes conflict with Nova and a big confrontation
ensues between the forces of good and evil involving many of the past E-Man
superheroes and villains. We also get to meet Nova’s mother and father, a
tribute to the wonderful cartoon series, Toonerville Trolly.

Johnson: So, what about future installments? Is this just
the beginning of an E-Man revival? Can we expect to see more new adventures
after this one?

Joe Staton

Staton: I'm approaching
this three-parter as the final E-Man story. I don't anticipate doing another,
but, hey, you never know.

Cuti: That is impossible to say
at this point. E-Man lives the same way I do, from opportunity to opportunity.

Johnson: Will we be seeing some other Cuti and Staton
collaborations for Charlton Neo besides E-Man?

Cuti: Also, impossible to say at
this point, but let’s see how this collaboration goes. I’ve included so many
characters in this trilogy; Joe may never want to collaborate with me again.

Staton: For the new
Charlton line, I did a cover last year for Career
Girl Romances,and I have a script
in for a little Paul Kupperberg story for Post-Modern
Love. Also, I have a script from Nickfor a story called “Mastermind” that Michael Ambrose will be putting out
in connection with Charlton Spotlight.
Nick originally wrote it as a proposal to be done with the late, great Don
Newton. It's a real Charlton script, just never drawn up or printed before.

Johnson: Finally, E-Man has become a much beloved
character over the last four decades. Through his many incarnations, he has
built up a tremendous and loyal fanbase. Is there anything you’d like to say to
those fans now?

Staton: Considering the confused
publishing history E-Man has had, and how many times I've considered him dead,
I continue to be amazed that he and his little gang of heroes can still summon
fans to share his optimistic take on life and the universe and everything. I'm
happy that the fans still find a place for that.

Cuti: Besides, thank you, I can
only hope for an E-Man movie. When E-Man was first created, the technology
wasn’t there for a believable movie. His shape changing would have seemed
ludicrous, but now it could work. Fans have been responsible for saving and
elevating so many characters and series of the past, here is another goal for
those ambitious young people. But, really, thank you. Joe and I owe this all to
you.

The first issue of Charlton's E-Man (October 1973)

Special plug additional: In 2011, a new version of First Comics put
together a Trade Paperback collecting all of the original E-Man stories from
the old Charlton run in the early 1970's along with some stories that ran in
the Charlton Bullseye fanzine and
have never been printed in color before.
The collection has never actually been distributed, but can now be
ordered from First Comics at http://1firstcomics.com/

Also, Joe Staton has files of
the Digital Webbing E-Man series that he got from Ed Dukeshire. Joe says,
“They're nice stories with modern coloring and the comics were never widely
distributed. It might be cool if we
could think of a way to package them with this new story of Nova and her
sister. You never know.”